The Life We Lead: Ascending (29 page)

“What was that?” exclaimed Daen. “Damn man,
he just freaked out!”

James took a few quick turns to get out of
the immediate area and make it harder to be followed. After a
moment, he answered, “I think it was two things. One, he was lying
about a connection to heroin and we pressed the topic. The second
was your hands.”

Daen looked at him, puzzled. “What do you
mean my hands, man?”

“When you stood up. You placed your hands on
the table. I think he took it as a challenge or something. I don’t
know. I’m not looking to go back and ask.” James headed back toward
the group’s headquarters.

“Well, shit,” said Daen.

The two men sat quietly for a moment before
Daen asked, “Man, did you get the sense like they were trying to be
all mafia in there? Like, it was a point to be like that?”

“Yeah, or they’re just really stupid and have
no idea how to operate. Let’s face it; Andrew was by far the
smartest in the room. But that’s not what concerns me.”

“What’da mean? It was a little scary, the way
he acted.” Daen pulled out his sunglasses as they headed west into
the afternoon sun.

James nodded. “Exactly. He was scared, dude.
That had all the makings of a bully overreacting like a scared
little kid.”

“Let me guess, man, his breathing went up or
his hands turned red?” Daen rolled his eyes before remembering
James couldn’t see behind his sunglasses.

“Actually, those probably happened, but given
his general health, that wouldn’t be singularly detectable by the
catecholamine rush. No, his muscles tightened and his eyes dilated.
Or I should say his pupils. But there was no detectable light
change.”

Daen just shook his head, but James didn’t
see it. A moment later, James interpreted the silence correctly and
said “Smart ass,” in a joking tone.

“Hey, I noticed that Andrew kid finished with
the camera before we left. You think it’s an issue, man?” Daen
asked.

“Oh, did he? I doubt it,” James dismissed the
concern. “He was still putting things away and probably didn’t have
it on.”

Later that day, with his most immediate
potential connection to the Spara situation essentially worthless,
James informed Tom and Andy that he’d have to exercise other
options, options that would take time.

They agreed, equally perplexed by what had
taken place. Tom asked if James or Daen planned to do anything with
Patrick to destroy his operation. Neither wanted to right now, but
they’d circle back to it later and bring Jake in to help.

Andy was fine with this. Tom grumbled a bit,
but in the end, he agreed it could wait.

Now that James had some extra wiggle room, he
wanted to focus on Operation Joshua and take care of the Tans once
and for all. It would certainly help relieve some of the stress he
was carrying. In fact, even though he was happier than he’d ever
been in his life, thanks to Carissa, the stress from Operation
Joshua, Spara, work, and all the other things he did for the group
was getting to be a lot, even for him.

He was still getting everything done and
doing it well, but he also was being a lot more direct with people.
Some of his co-workers took this as arrogance and thought he was
showing off.

The truth was, he was trying to help others
along by giving them logical suggestions that they interpreted as
telling them what to do. James knew he processed things more
quickly than most people, mainly because he didn’t have time to
slow down to their speed. But at this point, with the problem
pointed out to him, he did not feel that correcting any co-worker
relationship damage was worth the time.

Instead, he wanted to focus on the next steps
he and the major had put together. They were setting up a facility
near Pittsburgh where they could train for their number one task of
evacuating the children. That was simple enough. The more
challenging part was going through a variety of scenarios, as kids
could often be unpredictable.

That wasn’t the only unpredictable thing.
They didn’t have an accurate headcount on the number of kids or
adults/older teens in the compound. On top of that, they didn’t
know what kind of resistance they would face, aside from the fact
that they were attacking a fortress. This spawned a debate that
played out between James and the major about two weeks after his
and Daen’s encounter with Scalpini.

“Look, I understand. I really do, but that
doesn’t change the fact that we’re going into an operation with a
high number of unknowns. Worrying about motivation is the least of
our problems,” the major said with a lot of animated movement from
behind his desk.

James was leaning on the other side of the
desk, his fingertips on his forehead. He let his fingers run
through his hair before saying, “Keeping this operation as secret
as possible is paramount. I have no doubt your team can execute and
keep it to themselves, but this is different. We need the right
guys.”

“Just how is it different? And before you
answer that, I have other things I want you to answer first. What
is the main objective?”

“Safely removing the kids from that hellhole
and getting them to the safe location I’m arranging,” said James in
a low voice. He had made contact with what seemed to be a very
decent organization in Kyrgyzstan. He couldn’t transport the kids
too far, but given the resources he thought would be available
after the operation, he felt confident about the plans he was
making for them.

“Right, is that the primary?” The major stood
up.

“I just said it was, Ian.”

“Good.” The major walked around the desk and
stood over James before continuing. “My primary objective, which is
only superseded by yours, is to get my boys and myself home alive.
I know my team. They know me. I would follow any one of them into
hell and back if they asked. Just like I will with you. You have to
trust me,” he told James. “This group needs no extra motivation to
stay quiet. They’re all on board and have no idea what we’re
extracting. They are doing it for me,” the major stressed. “I may
not have the exact best individuals for the field, but damn it, I
have the best team, and I am not going without my team.”

James sat looking at him for a moment as
tension filled the room between two individuals who both were
rarely wrong. James then said, “Lame finish. I was expecting
something a little more awe-inspiring than that.” He cracked a big
grin.

“You son of a bitch,” the major laughed as
the tension broke. “You try coming up with something to convince a
hardhead like you that sounds all inspirational without sounding
like a douche on the spot.” He turned to go back to his seat,
adding, “Still leaves open what to do about this EMP thing. My guys
are good, but this sounds like something we haven’t ever
faced.”

“Yeah, I know. I’ll work something out before
we enter training.” James still didn’t know how he was going to do
that. His last contact with Calvin had been positive, but he needed
to find a way to get him involved without knowing exactly about
what.

***

James returned to Aberdeen the next day. Just
in case something happened, he was glad he’d arranged to spend a
few weeks working there and, consequently being with Carissa,
before leaving for the training and operation. He didn’t have a
fear of dying, though he had to admit it had crossed his mind
lately.

This was his life, planning for “in case
something happened.” He’d often been made fun of as a child, and
even as a young adult, for his ability to anticipate scenarios and
plan for them. It made him different and weird, something he’d
decided to embrace a long time ago. Carissa didn’t seem to mind. In
fact, she seemed to adore the fact that he could do that.

“You know, Love,” she said to him the night
before he left, “what if you don’t come back, then?” She was lying
on his chest as they watched television. She’d been rather cuddly
and provocative that night. It was nice, but James was also
appreciative of the fact that she wasn’t constantly “touchy feely”
most of the time.

James momentarily froze inside, but played it
cool. “Is that a question or a wish, Risa?”

“Don’t be a prat. I mean if you aren’t back
in time for Judy’s party,” she said, poking him in the ribs
playfully.

“Ah, right, the party,” he said as she
nuzzled his chest. He felt the tension leave his body in relief.
“Well, if I end up staying longer, I’ll arrange for the surprise to
be held at the same place a week later. I actually think it will
come as more of a surprise if we do it then, but it won’t tie into
your announcement of her moving to your branch. Unless you just
wait to do that announcement. Plus, then the puppy we’re getting
her should be able to be able to make the party, as it will be old
enough. Should make for a better time for her.”

“Why didn’t I think of that? Wonder if I can
get the transfer delayed any longer?” Carissa said thoughtfully,
more to the room than to James.

“Just tell them you’d rather do it during the
middle of the month than at the end with closing,” said James.

“Oh, right, didn’t even think about that.
Always thinking, you. And you definitely were thinking something
else when I brought up the party,” claimed Carissa.

“Not really too much, just that the program
was back on.”

She gave him another poke and he grunted.

“But you did think something. Heard your
heart beat faster, I did just then.”

He didn’t even think, just blurted, “That’s
because my heart will always race at the thought of never seeing
you again.”

Apparently James hit a chord with those
words, and the television program was forgotten. They made love
twice before Carissa fell asleep cuddled up next to him.

***

The next day, he headed off without waking
Carissa, though he left her a little note. It was going to be a
long four to six weeks before he could see her again.

Before his flight left, he headed to
Cambridge to see what he could extract from Calvin, or maybe Dr.
Watterson, about how to dismantle this EMP force field.

He arrived at the university with about an
hour in which to get the information he needed. Calvin and Raymond
were in the lab, along with Regan and Regina. Luckily, as James
walked in, the ladies were saying goodbye, though it looked like
they wanted to take the guys’ tongues with them. They giggled as
they passed James, and both pinched and then slapped him on the
butt.

James was astonished. He certainly hadn’t
encouraged that. Calvin just shook his head, but Raymond spoke.

“Ah, sorry about that, mate. They are a bit
frisky. My bum has a permanent red look to it as often as they do
that. Not always so sure it’s Regina doing the grabbing. They kind
of sneak it at you.”

“Ah, right,” James said, mainly because he
didn’t know what else to say.

Calvin took off the safety goggles he was
wearing and turned to James. “How’s it going? Need any more
information on how the fields work or such?”

James hesitated a moment, wondering if he
should just be direct or not, but time was pressing and he had
nothing to lose. “I wanted to ask, how would you disable the
EMP?”

“What EMP?” Raymond asked, but Calvin dived
right in.

“Good question, but you can’t disable an EMP
once it starts. You can prevent it, but once it goes, it goes until
it becomes too weak to be detected. It still follows the laws of
energy, mate,” Calvin said, slightly puzzled.

James was stuck. He didn’t want to directly
mention Yan again, but he needed to get the twins talking about his
experiments. He decided to play stupid.

“Wait, you were talking about creating an
extended EMP?” He used his hands to make a big arch in the air.

“That?” Calvin said with a small chuckle.
“Nah, mate, told ya. Can’t be done. Least that’s what Dr. Watterson
says, unless it’s really cold.”

“If that is the case, remove the cold.”
Raymond returned his attention to the circular test ring, but
continued, “That will stop the sustained EMP.”

“You said someone had done it before and got
the boot out,” James said quickly.

“Not quite, said he was trying to do it.
Never got it to go for any real length of time.” Calvin moved to
turn a switch for his brother, even though Raymond hadn’t given an
indication he wanted him to.

“Oh, Yan’s stuff,” Raymond said, followed by
a
click
as Calvin turned the switch. A faint humming could
be heard.

“Brilliant,” they said as one, looking at an
oscilloscope.

James had no other option now. He needed them
to be interested, and telling the truth, or part of it, was the
best way to generate that interest. “What if I told you that an
extended force field is possible? And more importantly, that it can
be done in open conditions on a massive scale?”

They laughed. “I would say that the girls hit
the wrong end and you need some sense knocked into ya, mate,”
Calvin said.

James grabbed a sheet of paper, crudely
sketched the layout, and described passing through it with the
stone markers. He described the issues with batteries and
electronics. He even told them about the use of older vehicles.

“You are barking mad, mate,” Calvin spoke
first. “First, you don’t even have a conductor capable of that. It
would be extremely expensive and have to be rather thick and run
right around the perimeter to start. And then how are you keeping
it …?”

James cut him off. “Wait, there is a natural
layer of some metal. Very visible.” He drew the cliff behind and
tried to put in the layer of what he thought was lead. “What if
that goes underneath the …? What are you staring at?”

“Look a bit familiar, Raymond?” asked
Calvin.

“Just a bit, like that antenna-like set Yan
did two weeks prior to getting escorted out. Made out of iridium,
weren’t it? Thought Dr. Watterson was going to have a heart attack
when the invoice showed up a month later. Had a total of fifty
grams, small fortune.” Abruptly, Raymond got up and left.